Providing adequate and practical storage space for drivers and other occupants of motor vehicles has traditionally been a priority for automobile manufacturers. In the vehicle interior, various storage bin compartments are often provided with, for example, a door panel that extends across the storage bin compartment in a closed position to cover the storage compartment and that can be opened to expose the storage bin compartment making it accessible to the driver or other vehicle occupants. For example, glove box storage bin compartments typically include a glove box door that can be closed to cover the glove box storage bin compartment and securely store and hide any contents contained therein and that can be opened to allow access to the storage bin compartment.
In one storage bin device described in CN103158628, a glove box assembly includes a storage bin compartment that is secured to a glove box door and that moves with the glove box door when the glove box door is open and closed. The storage bin compartment is formed by several generally vertical bin walls including a vehicle rearward bin wall that is attached to the glove box door and a vehicle forward bin wall that is on a side of the storage bin compartment opposite the glove box door. The storage bin compartment is stowed in a space formed in an instrument panel with the vehicle forward bin wall arranged in a mid-interior portion of the instrument panel when the glove box door is closed and the storage bin compartment is concealed behind the glove box door. When the glove box door is open, the glove box door and the storage bin compartment rotate about a lower pivot axis along the instrument panel to expose the storage bin compartment.
Unfortunately, there are some issues with this approach especially in view of current design trends and higher content requirements for instrument panels or the like which are resulting in less available packaging space (e.g., surrounding walls are getting lower for packaging glovebox bins or the like). First, in the open position, a gap between the vehicle forward wall of the storage bin compartment and the mid-interior portion of the instrument panel is visible to the vehicle occupants, thereby exposing the under structure of the instrument panel, which is aesthetically undesirable. Further, the gap can allow various contents contained in the storage bin to fall through the gap where the item(s) can get trapped behind the storage bin between the mid-interior portion of the instrument panel and the vehicle forward bin wall.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide storage bin arrangements that can overcome one or more of these foregoing issues. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present disclosure will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.